


How to Swim With the Sharks

by karrenia_rune



Category: Andromeda
Genre: F/M, Yuletide, challenge:NYR 2008
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-20
Updated: 2014-04-20
Packaged: 2018-01-20 03:13:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1494451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karrenia_rune/pseuds/karrenia_rune
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An episode tag for the third season episode "My Heart will Fly Away" featuring Tyr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How to Swim With the Sharks

**Author's Note:**

> I don't recall if Tyr's old lover had a name in the episode.

Title: How to Swim with the Sharks and (Not Get Eaten Alive  
Fandom: Andromeda, general series  
Characters: Tyr Anazasi  
Rating: PG  
Disclaimer: Andromeda belongs to Fireworks Entertainment and Tribune Productions as do Tyr Anazasi and any others who appear here or are mentioned; they are not mine.

 

“How to Swim with the Sharks (and Not Get Eaten Alive) by Karrenia

It should have been a simple routine assignment; one without any unnecessary embellishments or complications that had seemed to dog the steps of his crewmates like the old proverbial saying went: like someone walking on your grave.

Tyr had to muster up a grim smile at 'that' particular mental image; as a professional assassin, he would be the one his targets would feel breathing down their neck, closing in, and finally cutting short their lives.

Tyr Anasazi had never allowed his personal feelings to get in the way of doing his job, be the hit someone in the high office, rich or poor, male or female, even those of human descent; they all were just part of the job. As far as 

Tyr Anasazi was concerned any job worth doing was worth doing well, and by that yardstick, worth paying well to boot.

As he yanked up on the throttle of the slip fighter Tyr had to wonder, if briefly, if his client had deliberately withheld one vital piece of information and if so if it was worth the cost in time and fuel to turn back around, find the scum and twist the damning document around the miserable human's neck.

"There's still time for both," Tyr muttered aloud.

It would have been quite satisfying, but he was now within hailing distance of the planet below; a dull gray, black and brown smear now turning its daytime side to this system's sun. Having seen its nighttime side as well, Tyr was not impressed.

As dull as Elba Nine's planet's appearance from space was he was not here for the scenery so he gave it no further thought and began to put the slip fighter through its paces in order to pierce the planet's outer layer and finally down to the surface.

Elsewhere alone on the planet's surface a young woman with honey-colored hair tumbling I an artful disarray down her back anxiously paced up and down a narrow strip of hard-packed ground a serious expression on her face.

It was not the expression of a woman who was uncertain of what was to come, she knew that he would come he could not help but come.

If Desiree D'Lenn knew anything of the man who had once been her lover it was that he was nothing if not stubborn, tenacious and honorable; even every now and again that honor took a few turns into the inbred narcissism and survival at all costs trait that was bred into their race.

No, that she had no doubt on that score, Tyr would come. She was more concerned what would happen once he did arrive, the reunion would be nothing short of well, shocking and electrifying. She licked her lips and with one hand reached up to brush out the worst of the snarls from her hair.

In the back of her mind she thought, "After all this time, does he still love me? At this point am I angry or simply resigned to my exile on this miserable mudball of a planet? What will I say to him when he arrives?, or am I just wool-gathering? "

A sudden noise from the direction of the slowly setting sun broke her out of her meandering thoughts. The man responsible for her exile and for this odd reunion emerged from the shadows of a crevice in the rock wall that ringed the valley in a loose horseshoe-shaped oval.

Bartolome was a stocky, short bearded human male in his late fifties his black hair gradually growing gray and that infuriating smug grin plastered on his face. He approached where she stood. As he approached he rubbed his hands together.

"Taking the air, my dear? It's such a lovely day for it."

"What do you want?" Desiree demanded.

"You'll be happy to know that you will soon be reunited with your beloved Tyr. Is that not good news?"

She turned around and refused to acknowledge the greedy, insignificant human. He may have been responsible for her predicament, and hardly a threat in his own right, but he possessed the low cunning of the cruel and vindictive and the resources at his disposal were quite significant. Added to that she had to consider that her various attempts at escaping from her exile had certainly proved that he was not to be underestimated.

 

***

Tyr brought the slip fighter to a landing on the far edge of the rocky outcropping, making certain that everything was in order before he popped the hatch and stepped out onto the surface of the planet, swinging a pack over his back and began climbing up the steep slope.  
He ignored the loose scree that slid underneath his booted feet wondering if the woman he had once been hired to kill would still be there and if so if she knew of the circumstances that had brought them together again. In the back of his mind, Tyr thought, "If nothing else, this ought to be a highly diverting experience.'

Within ten minutes he emerged at the top of the horse-shoe shaped outcropping which had begun to noticeably slope downward into an equally rocky valley.

Desiree was there; pale and honey-blond as he had always remembered her.

Older perhaps but so was he. He took one of the downward sloping paths two strides at a time.

In the back of his mind, Tyr thought that if any of his crewmates from the Andromeda had seen them at this moment they would never have let him live it down. Romance, at least the kind to be found in Old-Earth novels was not a concept embraced by Nietzscheans; but there was definitely a connection between them, one to not be discarded so easily.

Their bodies made contact and for a while threw everything they had into a passionate kiss holding onto to each other each other as if they were no tomorrow.

"There this just might not be," Tyr thought to catch a glimpse of movement out of the corner of his eye.

"We're not alone," Tyr gruffly stated as he released her and looked all around him.

"Bartolome is here, and he's got his own private army," she replied with a grim nod of her head.

"An army that hasn't meet me yet," said Tyr quickly and quietly as he reached for the laser gun that he had slung over one shoulder.

"Now the party can begin," Bartolome announced as he came out midway between his hiding places in the rocky walls and where the pair stood facing him down.

"Remember the part where I took a chance on you?" Desiree asked.

"I remember," he replied quietly and reached out to draw her closer and then slipped her one of the small handguns.

"Tyr, where are my manners," Bartolome, "Is this any way to conduct a business negotiation? If I am not mistaken, and I hardly ever am, we had a deal."

"The deal is off," Tyr replied.

"I thought you were the best. I thought you never reneged on a contract," Bartolome wheedled and the sound of his nasal voice had long ago grated on Tyr's last nerve. He glanced at his Desiree and wondered how she had put up with it all of these years before turning back to confront Bartolome once more. "There is a first time for everything."

"You could just walk away and your reputation would be safe," the other suggested.

"You should know me better than that," Tyr retorted.

"Fire!" ordered Bartolome.

"At whom?" one his henchmen, most likely not the brightest tool in the shed asked, apparently acting on previous orders to not harm the woman in any way since they had been given to understand that she was bait.

"At the Nietzscheans, you dumb ass," Bartolome ordered.

Before the henchmen could sort it out Tyr with a nod began to open fire himself scattering the hapless men were forced to scatter in all directions to the hard ground to the resounding noisy whine of laser fire until all that remained standing were the two of them and Bartolome.

"My reputation is safe," Tyr offered the other man a wry grin.

"It is unfortunate that we cannot say the same about yours," she added.

"Go, go away," Bartolome replied weakly waving one hand in their general direction. "I should have known better than to tempt fate this way."

"Told you so," she added exchanging a significant glance with Tyr and then strode forward a few paces to stand over him for a second before, with a flick of her wrist punched Bartolome in the face.

"You don't have any idea, your miserable little man, how long I have been waiting to do that."

Tyr calmly waited as she crossed back over and they put away their weapons. "Never have I so badly wanted to leave a place as I do this one."


End file.
